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Cl550 22,000 Repair Bill from the Dealer... Should I let go?
I love my 2011 CL550 with 65,000 Miles on it. Its well taken care of, and I always bring it to the dealer since I had extended warranty. Well the warranty expired early this year, and of course the problem shows up now. I'm hit with a $22,000 USD repair bill to fix the following issues:
1. Code P001685 - $10,387.67 Camshaft (Turbo Coolant lines may be replaced as part of this repair - $3103.82)
2. Drive Shaft Boots $2919.93
3. Engine Transmission Mounts $5030
Please see attached for more details...
Is this worth the repair? I can see this car being sold for less than this price? Should I keep the car or should I just trade it in? What do you think is the future value of this car?
Last edited by Pinkus05; 12-19-2023 at 12:03 PM.
Reason: adding image
Heartbreaking, but as you know you'll never recover the spend on repairs at sale. You may need to bit the bullet and decide that these major repairs will extend the life of the car (to you) by X miles or Y years.
The English expression is to simply "run it to the ground" and accept its going to have to be a keeper.
It's not 12 years old and the best you can hope for is values bumping along the bottom. In the UK they've almost collapsed but leveled out at about $10,000 for 2007 models with 100k.
A national auction site has one for sale about every 6-8 weeks and optimistic reserves are never met
I'll send a link to the auction site so you can see what's going on over here
I think the repair bill is what keeps the prices down. People are afraid of these repair bills... I'm inclined to keep it going, but I'm thinking its not a wise move... its not...its an emotional move. =)
I wouldn’t let her go just yet. Find a good local shop that specializes in these cars. I just had my motor/trans mounts done by a former Mercedes master mechanic for $1800. $5k is insane.
I wouldn’t let her go just yet. Find a good local shop that specializes in these cars. I just had my motor/trans mounts done by a former Mercedes master mechanic for $1800. $5k is insane.
Hell even 1800 is insane. I had the motor and trans mounts done on my R230 Sl550 this year and even using MB factory parts the total for parts and labor using my indy was 1300.
Shop around OP - MB ownership is manageable once you find a good independent shop.
Personally I'd try to find a more reasonable price elsewhere to fix it and keep it--speaking as someone who has spent a crazy amount of money on my 2008, which is probably worth $10,000 despite the enormous amount of money and time invested. Even if you did worst case scenario and spent $22,000, it is still a lot of car for that much money. If you replaced it with a 2018 S Coupe, you be guaranteeing yourself losing a steady stream of a couple thousand per month in depreciation.
Personally I'd try to find a more reasonable price elsewhere to fix it and keep it--speaking as someone who has spent a crazy amount of money on my 2008, which is probably worth $10,000 despite the enormous amount of money and time invested. Even if you did worst case scenario and spent $22,000, it is still a lot of car for that much money. If you replaced it with a 2018 S Coupe, you be guaranteeing yourself losing a steady stream of a couple thousand per month in depreciation.
I like this way of thinking! Thanks for the advice!
Personally I'd try to find a more reasonable price elsewhere to fix it and keep it--speaking as someone who has spent a crazy amount of money on my 2008, which is probably worth $10,000 despite the enormous amount of money and time invested. Even if you did worst case scenario and spent $22,000, it is still a lot of car for that much money. If you replaced it with a 2018 S Coupe, you be guaranteeing yourself losing a steady stream of a couple thousand per month in depreciation.
Plus you know your car vs unknown issues, required maintenance with the new car.
Dealer in US quoted $3000 something for engine mounts. Challenge is (from videos) you have to remove drive shafts. Makes a lot of work. I'm not convinced you couldn't do it with a little grease and effort with the drive shafts in.
Agree an independent shop would be cheaper and maybe if you need brakes, control arms, etc, could have all that done at the same time.
I love my 2011 CL550 with 65,000 Miles on it. Its well taken care of, and I always bring it to the dealer since I had extended warranty. Well the warranty expired early this year, and of course the problem shows up now. I'm hit with a $22,000 USD repair bill to fix the following issues:
1. Code P001685 - $10,387.67 Camshaft (Turbo Coolant lines may be replaced as part of this repair - $3103.82)
2. Drive Shaft Boots $2919.93
3. Engine Transmission Mounts $5030
Please see attached for more details...
Is this worth the repair? I can see this car being sold for less than this price? Should I keep the car or should I just trade it in? What do you think is the future value of this car?
Though late to comment, for future readers:
Find an independent, and get another quote. Here is the first thing I would add to the new quote:
1 - Please boroscope the engine, the M278 engine may score the cylinders. If the score already started, RUN because the camshaft code, turbo lines, and engine mounts expense would be wasted money.
2 - Once the engine health is satisfactory to you, rethink the other expenses
3 - From the P001685 code expense I assume the dealer is planning to replace two camshafts (at least) plus related timing components in that bank
4 - Engine mounts seem excessive, but that job is booked with "engine out" --> a lot of work so at a dealer means $$$
5 - Axle boots, I do not have a clue, but they are coming out if either a new/used engine or mounts are being replaced.
All the best, and hopefully the car is still repairable.
12-19-2023, 01:50 AM
